Planning process
for island begins
By Peter Taber /The Waldo Independent
Those seeking total preservation of publicly owned Sears Island seemingly enjoyed a major victory Tuesday when they showed up for the first regular session of a state-sponsored planning initiative. It turned out there were no barriers to membership on a steering committee charged by Gov. John Baldacci with seeking consensus on recommendations for the future of the island. And the conservationists had the numbers. Department of Conservation (DOC) Deputy Commissioner Karin Tilberg, who took over command of the long-awaited Sears Island Planning Initiative from the Department of Transportation (DOT) in December, readily agreed that anyone who wanted to be represented would be, even those who later seek a place at the table for a series of public sessions that will extend possibly through the end of the year.
An initially constituted 16-member committee, all of whose members were invited by state officials to participate, was widely viewed with suspicion. The group was strongly represented by those sympathetic to industrial development of the largest undeveloped island property in public hands on the East Coast.
After it had become amply clear Tuesday a strong majority of the steering committee applicants were in the conservationist camp, Alan Stearns, special advisor to the governor, threw something of a damper on their hopes.
Stearns, who became the committee's 17th member after the initial steering committee met in Augusta for a scoping session Jan. 23, told the more than 60 people assembled at the Searsport Congregational Church meeting house that nothing imminent was planned for the island, that it would be best to “advance the dialogue” and not worry about the need to do anything now. “Given the history of this island,” he said, “I don't see what we start today will be finished one year from today, five years from today, 10 years from today.”
Waldo County Commissioner John Hyk, one of those who came to the meeting prepared to do battle to get on the steering committee, expressed his dismay at Stearns' words. “I'm hearing from the governor's office maybe the job doesn't need to be done,” he said, adding he was unwilling to participate if it meant years might pass before a substantive plan with broad public support might be developed for the island.
Both Tilberg and Jonathan Reitman, the facilitator from the January scoping session who was hired to continue shepherding the process, sought to allay such concerns. Tilberg said she hoped to see consensus on final recommendations by the end of the year. Reitman reminded the gathering that the day's session was still about process and more substantive activities would take place at future sessions.
These include one teleconferenced from Searsport District High School with participants in Bangor Thursday, June 15, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. A so-called “public participation event” involving the “open space” concept will be held at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast June 24, from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. A third steering committee public session is scheduled for July 12 and then the committee will recess until sometime in September.
Tuesday's six-hour session was forum for a medley of expressions of suspicion, hope and concern. What distinguished this particular effort from those that have resulted in at least 17 failed plans for the island over the years, Reitman pointed out, was that at long last all those with an interest in the island were sitting down together.
Tilberg called the occasion “a remarkable opportunity for all of us who care about this island.”
Sue Inches of the State Planning Office said it was “really exciting how people can come together” and that this was “a real opportunity.” Reitman echoed both of them, saying, “This is a little window of opportunity.”
Perhaps the one person most visibly distressed with the turn of events was Maria Fuentes of the trade group Maine Better Transportation Association. Despite Reitman's assurance the consensus process lessens the significance of numerical representation since there is no voting, Fuentes declared, “I feel overwhelmingly outnumbered.”
She charged the procession of applicants from the conservationist side involved a duplication of views. “It just seemed the same names kept coming up,” she complained.
Lorraine Brown, who earlier set off applause when she successfully urged starting over in naming the steering committee, said she detected in Fuentes' complaint another message. “I hear ‘We'll find a way to win',” she said.
Later when the transportation industry representative renewed her complaint that the committee, now more than doubled in size, was no longer balanced and some conservationist positions should be consolidated, Hyk had an unflattering interpretation.
“What I think Maria is saying would make her comfortable,” he said, “is if she could get all the people she wants here and remove some of the groups she thinks are redundant.”
Tuesday's session ended with a naming of potential issues to be discussed at the next meeting, an activity that dredged up many sour memories from the past. Among the points to be taken up are consideration of the island as a national and international natural resources asset; the potential for preservation of the island under the state's popular Land for Maine's Future program; how it figures in state plans for an expansion of the port of Searsport; whether there is need for such expansion; the legitimacy of the DOT claim to reserving 280 acres for undisclosed future port or related industrial development; whether the state's so-called “three-port policy” and its drive to promote port development at Searsport bear any relevance to changing economic realities; restoration of the tidal flow blocked when the causeway was built 19 years ago; air, water, noise and light impact of industrial development on neighboring communities; how state officials arranged to purchase the island in 1997; allegations of improper behavior by state officials to influence the town of Searsport with respect to the island; and whether a newly constituted steering committee might risk marginalization.
